Post One

This is the first of hopefully many posts to my new blog. I have been an amateur photographer now for a little under a year and learning is what it's all about right now. I started out by taking a beginner class at the Chicago Photography Center. The class was an excellent introduction and I recommend anybody interested in photography to take the class or something similar. Their website is http://www.chicagophoto.org/. Although the class was focused more on fine art it is good for any beginner who wants to feel closer to their camera and understand the whizz-bang knobs and dials that they have no clue about.

By the end of the first class we understood the photographers golden triangle: aperture - shutter speed - iso. This was great because up until then I had only ever used the automatic mode. I don't think I have ever used automatic since then. An understand of those "simple" concepts seemed to open up a whole new world to me. I put simple in parenthesis because although they are easy to understand, putting them into practice is a whole other story.

Vaughn

Well, there is no use in blogging about my photographic experiences without posting some pictures so here we go. The photo above is the one I have decided (for the moment) to use as the background to the blog.  It is of my collie Vaughn.  I like the shot because the line of his nose sits well with the line of the pillow that he is lying on.  It's also fairly soft and has the other pillow on the background which I feel rounds out the image.  There are probably some parts that are a bit bright (top left corner) but I think that this might balance out well with the top right corner where its fairly dark.  Vaughn is also a pretty serious dog and I think this is conveyed well.